Table of contents for June 2022 in Guitar Player

GUITARISTS. DAVID BOWIE could pick them. His catalog is filled with the work of greats like Earl Slick, Carlos Alomar, Robert Fripp, Reeves Gabrels, Adrian Belew, Nile Rodgers, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Peter Frampton, David Torn and Ben Monder. But might any of those alliances have happened at all were it not for Mick Ronson? The guitarist from Hull’s impact on Bowie’s career has been well documented. Ronson was the first of his collaborators whose talents were equal to his own, if different by nature. In Ronson, Bowie had a guitarist, pianist, arranger and musical foil who could give shape, form and massive guitar tone to his musical creations, turning them into hits and, fair to say, cultural movements. Ronno’s distinctive work on Bowie’s early 1970s output remains for me some…

RELEASED IN 1977 on TVP Records, the album 22 Original Gospel Greats entered my life during a visit to my Aunt Fran in Portland, Oregon. On an open-ended afternoon, I wandered into a local music store where I had no preconceived intentions of buying a gospel LP. But when I saw 22 Original Gospel Greats, I thought, Why the hell not? Little did I know that listening to it would be like signing up for a community college night class about gospel music. I’ve sought out and loved gospel music ever since. All 22 tracks on the album are wonderfully curated; there’s not a clinker in the bunch. Three cheers for TVP Records! James Cleveland opens the LP with a big bang on “Get Right Church.” His impressively masculine vocals…

In 1970, Mick Ronson changed the musical fortunes of David Bowie, a struggling singer-songwriter with two novelty hits behind him. Together, and with their band the Spiders From Mars, they reinvented Bowie musically and created some of glam-rock’s best-loved albums: Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Aladdin Sane and Pin Ups. Afterward, Ronson struggled to match that initial success, despite a catalog of collaborations that included some of rock’s biggest names: Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Ian Hunter, Roger McGuinn, Morrissey, John Mellencamp and many others. Although Ronson’s career was defined by his time with Bowie, there was a significant before and after. In the 1960s, he played in various groups from his hometown of Hull, including the Mariners, who were advised by…

LARRY McCRAY’S NEW album, Blues Without You, is his first record of original material since 2007. McCray burst onto the scene as a major new voice in blues guitar way back in 1991, with the release of his debut album, Ambition, followed two years later by Delta Hurricane. It looked like he was destined for the sort of mainstream crossover appeal enjoyed by the likes of Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan, but his blues train started to derail. By 2001, without a record deal, McCray was releasing his music on his own label. He’d resigned himself to the possibility that his major-label days were behind him, when Joe Bonamassa called to ask if he’d record for Bonamasssa’s label, KTBA (Keeping the Blues Alive). The result is Blues Without You,…

AS ONE OF the world’s most famous guitarists, George Harrison was on the receiving end of some stunning and groundbreaking guitars, including a prototype Rickenbacker 360/12 12-string, in 1964, and a prototype Fender Rosewood Telecaster, in 1969. But as astute Beatles fans learned in recent years, in 1967 Harrison became the recipient of an unusual prototype fretless guitar built by the short-lived U.S. Bartell company. How the guitar came to be, and how Harrison came to own it, are among the subjects explored by British author Paul Brett in his recently published groundbreaking tome, Finding Fretless: The Story of George Harrison’s Mad Guitar (This Day in Music Books). Brett’s interest in the guitar was spurred when his friend, veteran jazz-fusion guitarist Ray Russell, posted a cryptic message to his Facebook…

FOR ROCK AND technology, 1969 was a most transformative year. A stellar synergetic example is how the BBC included rising star David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” in its coverage of NASA’s Apollo 11 spaceflight to the moon. We’re still feeling the ripple effect trickling down to the present. An iPhone packs more tech than it took to get to the Moon, and an app offers many more tracks than Bowie had a his disposal. I spent much of the past few years exploring digital audio and video possibilities, and have finally rendered the kind of modern/classic rock album I’ve dreamed of making since birth, in 1969. I’m thrilled to share lessons learned about creating Spirit Hustler’s self-titled debut album, starting with the cosmic lead track, “The Spirit of ’69.” Unbelievably, the…

EVOLUTION IS THE name of the game at PRS, so it’s not surprising that the new-for-’22 S2 Custom 24-08 (which is an advancement on the previous S2 Custom 24) carries things forward with a switching system that puts a range of tones intuitively at your fingertips. The model on review here is a beautiful guitar with its Lake Blue finish, an iridescent-blue color that showcases the figuring of the maple like you’re seeing it through the waters of a pristine tropical reef. The blue-planet theme is continued on the back, neck and headstock, and cool as this package is, if that’s not exactly what you’re looking for, you can choose from five other sumptuous shades. Hardware consists of a PRS Patented Gen III Tremolo bridge with a push-in bar, a…

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“IF THERE’S A WAY TO DROP ALL THOSE INFLUENCES IN AND CREATE A UNIQUE SOUND, THAT IS THE MAGIC, AND THAT’S SOMETHING I’VE BEEN TRYING TO GET TO” A ROSTER OF THE artists signed to the Mascot Label Group reads like a list of the sharpest guitar players around. From Steve Vai to Robben Ford, the level of musicianship is incredible. But one artist on the roster seemed a little more intriguing. Los Angeles resident Eric Krasno is one of those interesting musicians who is happy to sit on a tasteful, minimal groove all through one song, only to burn like a latter-day Wes Montgomery on the next. Blending elements of Herbie Hancock and Curtis Mayfield in his writing, with chops worthy of Grant Green, Krasno is a subtle gem…

MICK RONSON IS arguably the best-loved and most iconic of Bowie’s guitar slingers. His playing techniques were eccentric, but they worked. One unusual attribute was that, unlike most other guitarists, he kept his left-hand fingernails fairly long. He claimed that this enabled him to get his nails under the strings to create the kind of extreme vibrato (shown off to devastating effect on Bowie’s “The Width of A Circle”) that led some listeners to believe he was using a trem, or play extraordinary bends that sounded like he was deploying a slide. To this end, he kept his guitars subtly detuned, preferring to bend a slightly flattened string into pitch. His idol Jeff Beck used to do something similar during his Yardbirds years. Few major guitarists have ever seemed fundamentally…

JOE BONAMASSA’S KEEPING the Blues Alive label certainly lives up to its name. Not only has it brought neglected figures such as Larry McCray and Eric Gales back into the spotlight but it’s helped raise more than one million dollars to support struggling musicians and fund blues education programs. The label’s previous releases include Dion’s 2020 all-star hook-up Blues With Friends, as well as a pair of 2021 albums from Joanne Shaw Taylor (The Blues Album) and Joanna Connor (4801 South Indiana Avenue). Bonamassa and his manager, Roy Weisman, founded the label with a mission to preserve arts education, with 10 percent of profits going toward donations of musical instruments and supplies to schools in need. Their ultimate goal is to ensure blues culture and history are embraced and recognized…

GIBSON’S NEW GENERATION Collection is designed for players of all sizes, skill levels and bank accounts that are in the market for a genuine American acoustic built with solid woods in the venerable manufacturer’s Bozeman, Montana factory. These four no-frills instruments all share one distinctly outside-the-box feature: the Player Port on the top side above the upper bout. All feature walnut back and sides, a Sitka spruce top, and a striped ebony fretboard as well as Grover tuners, a Tusq nut and saddle, and a slim utile neck. There are two models with electronics (EC) and two without, ranging in size from parlor to jumbo. All are on review here, and all have slightly thinned bodies for comfort. From smallest to largest, they include the G-00 parlor, G-45 round-shouldered dreadnought,…

WHEN PORTABLE LINE array sound systems first arrived on the scene, their compact size and quick setup made live performing easier. Thanks to their breakthrough speaker designs, players immediately enjoyed better sound quality. The smart integrated design of these systems has made them a staple at small and midsize venues, where space is a valuable commodity. And while pricing initially wasn’t far from traditional systems with powered speakers, more channels and effects, more designs have been introduced in recent years, giving players a wider range of options. Among them is the new Harbinger MLS1000 PA. It boasts a larger sub than its predecessor (the MLS900), an impressive list of features, serious power and an attractive price tag. Naturally, I was curious to know if this cost-effective and compact system could…

MUCH HAS BEEN written about Gibson’s most famous thinline semi-acoustic model, the ES-335. Virtually an overnight success upon its release in 1958, it has remained a classic and abiding design ever since, virtually defining the popular marriage between the solid- and hollowbody electric formats. Far less discussed, however, is the incremental way Gibson worked up to that shallowbodied electric built with laminated woods and a solid center block — and the ES-225 of 1955–’59 was a major stepping-stone along the way. Once the solidbody electric proved more than just a flash in the pan in the early ’50s, Gibson and other makers began scrambling to achieve similar amplified properties in electric guitar models that still retained traditional elements and at least some semblance of archtop-hollowbody tradition. The ES-175, released three…

FOR YEARS AFTER Mick Ronson’s death, the whereabouts of his stripped 1968 Gibson Les Paul Custom — the Ziggy Stardust guitar — were a mystery even to those who had been closest to him. When Rick Tedesco asked Ronson’s friend and fellow performer Ian Hunter about it, the former Mott the Hoople frontman shrugged. “God only knows where that went,” he replied. “Mick probably gave it to some guy walking across the street. He didn’t care about gear. It was just a tool to him.” For Tedesco, finding the guitar became a mission. A guitarist, producer and engineer whose credits include work with Hunter, Alice Cooper and former Cooper band members Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith, Tedesco had become a Bowie fanatic through the artist’s 1974 album, Diamond Dogs. “I…

DARK, HANDSOME, AND understated, the Fender Rosewood Telecaster has much in common with George Harrison. Custom-built for the guitarist in 1968 by Fender craftsmen Roger Rossmeisl and Philip Kubicki, it suited him down to the ground, although it was high on the roof of the Beatles’ Apple Corps headquarters in London that this unique Tele design was unveiled, at the band’s final public performance on January 30, 1969. The origin of the Fender Rosewood Telecaster likely stems from a meeting at Apple Corp in 1968 set up by Don Randall, Leo Fender’s original business partner and head of the company’s sales division. Keenly aware of the importance of product placement, and having courted the Beatles for some time, Randall visited the band’s Savile Row HQ, where he met with John…

MARRYING A NUMBER of popular styles, the new Rivolta Regata VII will present some familiar visual reference points for many players, not least of which is clear evidence of the design prowess of Dennis Fano, formerly of his own eponymous brand and currently head of the popular Novo Guitars. Representing a more affordable offshore offshoot for Fano, Rivolta guitars are manufactured at the highly regarded Mirr Music Co. factory in South Korea, which also makes guitars for Reverend, Danelectro, Baum and other respected brands with western design roots. Those who know Fano and Novo guitars will recognize a kinship between the offset-waist, semi-acoustic body of the Regata VII and, for example, the shape of Novo’s solidbody Serus J, whose sharp, asymmetrical cutaway horns are faintly echoed here, with some variations…